Hacker News Reader

Comment by daveguy | Hacker News Reader

I think it never made it big because:

1. Thinking about having to parallel park makes sure you are less likely to bump the cars in front and behind. Moving the front in and then swinging the back in seems like a good way to swing the back into another car.

2. Parking wasn't as much of a nightmare in the early 30s. Then WWII happened and that metal would have been an excess. By the 50s it was a "failed" idea.

Having 90 degree car wheels (that can only go 90 degrees at ~rest) combined with the sensors on a modern EV might make it feasible. But I'm not a mechanical engineer so "90 degree car wheels" might have some other feasibility problems, even at rest.

View on HN

>Having 90 degree car wheels (that can only go 90 degrees at ~rest) combined with the sensors on a modern EV might make it feasible. But I'm not a mechanical engineer so "90 degree car wheels" might have some other feasibility problems, even at rest.

Should be easily possible to get almost the same effect on any RWD car if the engineers feel like designing for it (they don't). It's just a matter of allowing enough steering angle (amount depends on wheelbase). Every forklift made in the last 70yr can pivot about one of the non-steering wheels if you turn the wheel far enough. Some commercial trucks have enough steering angle to get almost the same effect (though they're much longer so the required angle is less) With ABS to brake the pivot point wheel it would be pretty graceful and you'd avoid the "just plowing straight" that forklifts tend to do when you try and crank the steering to max on anything other than pavement.

But there would be a lot of tradeoffs in order to get the range of motion you'd need out of the steering wheels so it makes sense that they don't.

> By the 50s it was a "failed" idea.

What do you mean by this?

When something has been around for a while but never caught on we're usually quite dismissive by default, usually on the assumption that it never caught on for a reason. Think of your own reaction the last time 3D TV's were hot.

Things will usually fail for the same reason again and agian unless there's been a fundamental change to make it more feasible, like battery tech making the latest round of electric vehicles successful.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com